Rep. James Walkinshaw (D-VA11) on CNN yesterday evening; I thought the following comments were interesting:
- First, in response to the question, “Does the president have the [War Powers Act] law wrong?”, Rep. Walkinshaw responded, “I don’t think it’s subjective or a matter of opinion. I think the law is pretty clear. The clock starts when the hostilities start and the president informs Congress of those hostilities and the clock continues to run until our forces are withdrawn. There isn’t a timeout for a ceasefire even if it’s a ceasefire that holds. This doesn’t appear to be a ceasefire that’s holding. I think that is clear in the law. There’s no question about it. It’s a novel theory that the president is propounding here and it looks like a theory that’s about to run its course anyway as it appears that the ceasefire is ending and those hostilities are resuming today.”
- Second, in response to the question, “What is holding Republicans back from challenging the president on this [unpopular war]?”, Rep. Walkinshaw responded: “Republicans in Congress…they’re more loyal to Donald Trump than they are to their own constituents or or to the country. There is just a strong strong fealty and loyalty to Trump. They don’t want to cross him. And look, in their defense, they’ve seen some of their colleagues who have voiced a a tiny bit of opposition to Trump or Trump policies lose Republican primaries, right? Dan Crenshaw is a good example. So, I think they’re terrified of that. They’re terrified of that blowback.”
- Finally, in response to the (biased) question, “Do you fear a blowback for Democrats in Virginia for rewriting redrawing rather the congressional districts to the degree that that they did?”, Rep. Walkinshaw responded, “In Virginia, unlike Texas and the other Republican states that have redrawn their maps in the middle of the decade, like California, we put it to the voters. So, the voters got to choose a couple weeks ago. They saw the map in advance of the vote. And the referendum passed. So at the end of the day, it’s the voters who decided to redraw Virginia’s congressional district. So given that, I don’t think Democrats will face a backlash. I do think it’s time for both parties now to come together and for Republicans to join Democrats in supporting a national ban on partisan gerrymandering. This is not good for the Democratic party, not good for the Republican party, not good for the country. We can continue to ratchet up this redistricting war, but we’d be much better off to just ban partisan gerrymandering across the country.”
